A few days ago I took a look at the George Allen campaign’s assault against Webb. Allen pointed to Webb’s fiction novel, pointing out that they (A) contained graphic sex and (B) habitually portrayed women as inferior.

I argued the first count was no big deal; the novels were not targeted to children, and sometimes deviant sexuality is the best way to depict a character’s pathologies. However, I said that the second allegation was a potential problem if it was true – if, over thousands of pages, a certain group of people is consistently shown as inferior, it probably says something about the author’s worldview.

I believe Webb’s defenses strengthen my arguments. Regarding my first argument, he’s pointed out that the most disturbing scene is something he’s actually witnessed as a journalist.

He’s proven rather inept at my second point, and while I haven’t read Webb’s work, I’m starting to suspect it’s true. Rather than talking about female role models in his novels he’s simply called some names and stated that, “I have lived in the real world, and I have reported the real world in my writings.”

So in Webb’s view, women in the real world are, according to the Allen campaign, “servile, subordinate, inept, incompetent, promiscuous, perverted”?

Webb will really need to produce some examples of good women in his novels to convince people.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.